Chapter 3: The Psychoanalytic Approach: Freudian Theory ...



Chapter 3: The Psychoanalytic Approach: Freudian Theory, Application and Assessment

The first comprehensive theory of personality was developed by Sigmund Freud about 100 years ago.

Used hypnosis for patients suffering from hysteria.

came to understand the power of unconscious influences on behavior patients suffering from conversion disorder

Believed cases were caused by unconscious sexual motives.

Freud’s theory proposed that childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality

Personality can be divided into 3 parts:

Conscious: contains thoughts you currently are aware of. Changes constantly as new thoughts enter. Can deal with only small amount of info stored

Preconscious: what you could bring into conscious thought if wanted to. Large body of retrievable information

Unconscious: material to which you have no immediate access. The repository of memories, emotions and thoughts that influence behavior---may not be aware of them. Only certain circumstances may bring unconscious into conscious.

Unconscious processes

Resistance: force that prevents the patient from becoming aware of events and keeps them in the unconscious

Repression: blocking of a wish or desire from the consciousness: emotion that is prevented from being expressed normally may be expressed through a neurotic symptom

Understanding influence of unconscious on behavior—central idea of psychoanalytic perspective

Personality has 3 structures: the id, ego, and superego.

Id: present at birth. Part of person concerned only with satisfying personal desires, the selfish part of you. Instincts, reservoir of psychic energy.

Unconcious—no contact with reality

Acts according to the pleasure principle ----goal is to seek pleasure and avoid pain; reduce tension and maximize satisfaction.

Uses wish fulfillment to satisfy needs—id will imagine what it wants, if desired object not there. Dreams, daydreams

Ego: primary job of ego is to satisfy id impulses—considers realities of situation. Around age 2.

The Executive of Personality--keeps socially unacceptable impulses/wishes of id in unconscious. Uses cognitive abilities to manage and control the id and to balance id’s desires against the restriction of reality and the superego.

Reality principle---tries to bring individual pleasure within norms of society.

Ego partially conscious—reasons, problem solves, makes decisions and makes rational decisions.

Superego: represents society’s values and standards. Places more restrictions on what we can and cannot do. Develops around 5 yrs old.

The Conscience and Ego Ideal

The superego opposes the desires of the id by enforcing moral restrictions. Conscience punishes for moral violations through use of guilt. right or wrong considered.

Doesn’t consider reality—only whether id’s sexual and aggressive impulses can be satisfied in moral terms.

Moral anxiety—ever present feelings of shame and guilt.

Desires of id, superego and ego complement and contradict—state of tension exists between desire for self-indulgence, concern for reality and enforcement of strict moral code.

id or superego not allowed too much control in a healthy person.

Healthy personality---ego controls id impulses and superego demands--- id or superego not allowed too much control.

Person with a weak superego may be self-indulgent

Person with a strong id may be impulsive

Psychological activity is powered by psychic energy---

Libido—life or sexual instinct

Thanatos---death or aggressive instinct.

Intrapsychic conflict creates tension, and the goal of human behavior is to return to a tensionless state.

Ego uses defense mechanisms to assist in less tension (healthy person). Except for sublimation, the ego uses these defense mechanisms at a cost.

Ego uses defense mechanisms for protection against conflicts and anxieties—relegates unpleasant or unacceptable thoughts and impulses to unconscious.

Ego becomes overwhelmed as id’s demands increase, resulting in anxiety

Defense mechanisms arise from anxiety: An intense, negative emotional experience

neurotic anxiety: Anxiety caused when irrational impulses emanating from the id threaten to burst through and become uncontrollable

defense mechanisms: Unconscious strategies people use to reduce anxiety by concealing its source from themselves and others

Repression—motivated forgetting—central concept in theory. Unacceptable or traumatic thoughts, feelings, events repressed into unconscious. Constant, active process—ego expends great amounts energy—may leave weak ego and unstable personality

Sublimation----transformation of unacceptable impulse into acceptable or constructive behavior. More use it, more productive—id allowed to express aggression

Displacement—re-channel impulses to nonthreatening objects.

Denial—refuse to accept or believe any information about situation or behavior and feelings that provoke anxiety. Insist something is not true. Extreme form of defense—the more used, the less touch with reality.

Reaction Formation—when people present selves as the opposite of what they really are. ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites

Hide from threatening unconscious idea or urge by acting in opposite manner.

Intellectualization---remove emotional content from thought, as way to handle threatening material.

Consider in intellectual, unemotional way, bring difficult thoughts into consciousness without anxiety.

Projection--- people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others. Project impulse onto other person, free selves from perception that we actually hold this thought. See own faults in others.

Regression: defense mechanism in which an individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated

Rationalization: offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions

Psychosexual stages of development.

Freud maintained that young children pass through stages of development characterized by the primary erogenous zone for each stage. Children pass through stages on the way to healthy sexual expression in the genital stage.

Excessive trauma during these early years may cause psychic energy to become fixated.

An important step in the development of adult personality takes place with the resolution of the Oedipus complex at the end of the phallic stage.

The Stages of Psychosexual Development

Freud’s developmental stages represent a shifting of the primary outlet of id energy from one part of the body to another. Erogenous zones—areas of pleasure

Oral Stage (Birth to 1 Year)

In the oral stage, id gratification is focused on the mouth.

Anal Stage (1 to 3 Years): children learn about controlling others and delaying gratification.

Phallic Stage (3 to 6 Years): the genitals become the primary source of gratification.

Latency Stage (6 to 11 Years):sexual desire is strongly repressed through the resolution of Oedipal and Electra complexes.

Oedipal: A boy’s sexual desire for his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father.

A girl’s desire for her father is called the Electra complex.

Children cope with threatening feelings by repressing them and by identifying with the rival parent. Through this process of identification, their superego gains strength that incorporates their parents’ values

Genital Stage (11 Years On): sexual and romantic interests become directed toward one’s peers.

Fixation: a defense mechanism that arises when psychic energy is blocked at one stage of development, making change or psychological growth difficult. A lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, where conflicts were unresolved

Excessive trauma during these early years may cause psychic energy to become fixated.

Oral stage—oral satisfaction. Fixation: dependent on others as adults. After teeth—excessive aggression

Anal stage—excessively orderly, stubborn or generous—depending on toilet training

Psychoanalysts have developed several methods for getting at unconscious material.

Clues about unconscious feelings may be expressed in:free association, Freudian slips, accidents, and symbolic behavior. Use of projective tests and hypnosis

Free association: free flowing ideas—normally excluded from consciousness—insight into part of mind not seen in everyday censored life. person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing

free flowing ideas normally excluded from consciousness—insight into part of mind not seen in everyday censored life

Used in psychoanalysis—therapist tells person to verbalize every thought that comes to mind, no matter how irrelevant or distasteful it may appear.

Freudian slip: slips of the tongue—call someone wrong name or label. mistake in speech really a picture of how person really feels, tells the underlying feelings. Caused by unconscious wishes.

Freud called dreams the "royal road to the unconscious." He interpreted the symbols in his patients' dreams to understand unconscious impulses.

Accidents: many accidents intentional actions coming from unconscious impulses.

Symbolic behavior—psychologically significant behavior everywhere in a person’s life

Freud developed the first system of psychotherapy, called psychoanalysis. lengthy therapy--bringing the unconscious sources of the clients' problems into awareness.

A Freudian therapist actively interprets the true (unconscious) meanings of the clients' words, dreams, and actions for them.

Image of patient laying on couch, therapist in chair out of sight. Told to speak freely as way to delve into unconscious material

Primary goal to uncover repressed memories through free association and dream analysis. Freud: “to strengthen the ego…examine unconscious material in a rational way”. Therapist and patient work together to help ego with appropriate control over id impulses and oppressive superego

For treatment to be successful, libido previously expended on neurotic symptoms (anxiety , depression) must be freed to work in service of the ego. No longer suffer from debilitating symptoms, use psychic energy to perform ego functions and have an expandable ego that includes previously repressed experiences.

first signs that psychoanalysis is progressing is resistance--client stops cooperating with the therapeutic process in order to halt the therapist's threatening efforts to bring out key hidden material.

Projective tests: ambiguous stimuli used to elicit responses that indicate what is going on in unconscious

test takers are asked to respond to ambiguous stimuli, such as inkblots. Because there are no real answers, responses are assumed to reject unconscious associations.

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Rorschach Inkblot Test and Thematic Apperception Test more common

Strengths of the Freudian approach is the tremendous influence Freud had on personality theorists. Freud developed the first system of psychotherapy and introduced many concepts into the domain of scientific inquiry.

Critics point out that many of Freud's ideas were not new, that many aspects of his theory are not testable, and his use of biased data in developing his theory. Many of those who studied with Freud also disliked his emphasis on instinctual over social causes of psychological disorders and the generally negative picture he painted of human nature.

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